daveywow

I sprinkle them through the meeting. We use them to welcome visitors, to congratulate the dens after presentations, thank parents for coming, whatever. The boys need to make noise and move around. This gives them several opportunities to do so without disrupting the meeting. We don't need them as much when there are activities going on. When I first started doing them, the boys kind of looked at me funny, but now they've bought in and expect it.

According to page 32 of the Cub Scout Leader Book (2010 printing) the boys "graduate" to the next level at the end of the school year, "usually May or June". The specific example in the Leader Book is Tigers to Wolves. Based on this, for the Summertime award, they receive the color award for the grade they will start in the fall. The only difference is the color band on the outside. Otherwise the awards are the same and the requirements are the same.

We sell popcorn. Sometimes I feel like we're the "Selling Stuff Scouts" instead of Cub Scouts. We make just enough to run the program. Thankfully, our Council is changing vendors, (from Trail's End to Camp Master). Rumor has it there will be more low end items, which would help our kids. Many of them live in low income areas and have a hard time selling $25-50 items. If there were extra money, I'm pretty sure we could find good ways to spend it , but it still probably wouldn't be on belt loops.

I'm not a fan of the belt loops. The elective programs have TONS of fun activities. Some of them are a little dated, but it would make more sense to me to update the boy books rather than add an extra program. Yes, I know the belt loops have been around awhile. Then there are the economic issues. With electives, the boys do 10 activities and earn a $1.00 patch. Some activities are harder/more time consuming than others. With the belt loops, the boys do three (generally simple) activities and earn a $2.00 belt loop. With 40 boys in the pack, that would add up pretty quickly. Plus the belt loops can be earned more than once. How many times can you really learn the rules, identify the chess pieces and play a game? Recognition is important, but I don't know that we need to give the boys an award for every single thing they do in life. Electives are also things that can be done by the boys at home. They don't all need to be done in den meetings.This flexibility is nice. When my own boys say they're bored, I tell them to go find their scout books and look at the electives. They can usually find a couple of things to do to keep us busy for most of an afternoon, sometimes 2 afternoons. 10-20 arrow points? Is 20 even possible? Are there 200 elective activities? I know some things can be done more than once and the Bears have the option of using some of the unused achievements, but 200 activities beyond the rank badge would take a ton of time. Earning just 5 or 6 arrow points takes quite a bit of work. I would emphasize having fun with the activities and not stress about how many arrow points. Our pack does the belt loops required for Webelos advancement and we pay for the ones earned at district/council/day camp events, but otherwise we don't use the program. We had one family leave over this, but otherwise no one else has complained. I think some of the parents are pleased by not having to buy the belts to put the loops on.

Does this help? I think it is all the 1915 issues in one pdf file. http://www.archive.org/details/boyslife191500boys